Congressional Report Slams Edward Snowden

He's called a 'serial exaggerator and fabricator'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 15, 2016 6:56 PM CDT
Congressional Report Slams Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden appears on a live video feed broadcast from Moscow at an event sponsored by ACLU Hawaii last year in Honolulu.   (AP Photo/Marco Garcia, File)

A House intelligence committee report issued Thursday condemned Edward Snowden, saying the NSA leaker is not a whistleblower and that the vast majority of the documents he stole were defense secrets that had nothing to do with privacy, the AP reports. The Republican-led committee released a three-page unclassified summary of its examination of how Snowden was able to remove more than 1.5 million classified documents from secure NSA networks, what the documents contained, and the damage their removal caused to US national security. "He put our service members and the American people at risk after perceived slights by his superiors," says Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the committee.

Snowden is seeking a presidential pardon because he says he helped his country by revealing secret domestic surveillance programs. All members of the committee sent a letter to President Obama urging him not to pardon Snowden. "The vast majority of what he took has nothing to do with American privacy," said Rep. Adam Schiff. The committee report says that he was a "disgruntled employee who had frequent conflicts with his managers." According to the committee, Snowden began mass downloads of classified material two weeks after he was reprimanded for engaging in a spat with NSA managers. The committee also described Snowden as a "serial exaggerator and fabricator." The report was released one day ahead of Friday's opening of director Oliver Stone's film Snowden. (More Edward Snowden stories.)

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